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NormanH

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Posts posted by NormanH

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    Barenboim, of course, was his usual maestro-ly self, no scores needed for him to conduct!Big Smile [:D]

    That reminds me of the story of Beecham who when asked why he used a score when some other conductors didn't replied

    'But you see I can read music '

    [:D]

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    There is a particular mannerism that comes from the singers of popular music and which consists of starting just under pitch and then sliding up onto the note to give an impression of an increase of tension such as one might get from a crescendo, but which is very waring once one has spotted it.

    Never mind...

    There are some magic moments still to be found:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQlt1UxjvWU&html5=1

    I can't help believing that when she sung this she had already had the diagnosis of cancer...

    So from virtuous toils well borne

    raise the hopes of endless light....

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    Obviously I agree; but I go a step further in that I rarely hear a reading of an older text (on the few occasions that they occur) where the readier shows any understanding of the meaning and especially the structure of the longer paragraphs. As an example the young woman who read the Ben Johnson

    'I sing the birth was born tonight,

    The Author both of life and light:

    The angels so did sound it;

    And like the ravished shepherds said,

    Who saw the light and were afraid,

    Yet searched, and true they found it.'

    as if each line were end stopped, and so broke up the sense, rather then reading

    "And like the ravished shepherds said Who saw the light and were afraid Yet searched"

     in one breath as is perfectly possible.

    The TV Carols from Kings bore the marks of being one too many things for them to do.

    The simple arrangement that used to be given by Woodward of 'Ding Dong Merrily on High' or of 'The Seven Joys of Mary' by Stainer are now replaced by over-worked over-elaborate arrangements with the organ

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    In that vein I have a couple of singers I enjoy who are less well known than the famous jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn

    Madeleine Peyroux

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRR5YrpbBe4&list=RDh4stmQUlNhQ

    Then this unashamedly sentimental song about the experience of a child leaving home for adult life

    Isabelle Boulay (who has a magnifent voice also)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYB8ZDcPM9Q&html5=1

    Then there is Ute Lemper...what a voice, what a performer, and in three languages!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYrNfjn3pgY&list=PLAC1718F66385FECAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxWpYd9CcIU&list=PLAC1718F66385FECA&html5=1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxWpYd9CcIU&html5=1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzvgV4lILSc

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    And I was thinking of the fallacy that came in with Punk I think (the whole movement, not just the 'music') that you don't need technique or work to express feeling, just raw emotion will do.

    In fact those who have spent years acquiring skills, such as classically-trained   musicians or dancers are the object of derision for being uptight and incapable of expressing themselves.

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    I liked a lot about the programme apart from the usual crass editing that has people talking over the music you want to listen to. Why on earth don't they put commentary in sub titles so it doesn't interfere aurally?

    Secondly it fall into the usual contemporary trap of confusing exuding emotion with profundity of feeling.

    Every thing now has to be 'dramatic' [:(]

    Thirdly it is a pity that the definition couldn't have been widened a bit to 'funeral music' to allow the splendid Purcell music to be included, or Bach (which  I find intensely moving in its understated simplicity and confidence) ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnGOQt3tn-Q&html5=1

    My Favourite is Victoria as you might perhaps have imagined

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZoUi4OIYCE&html5=1

    If we move to the big 'orchestral' works the one that stands out is the Brahms, but that hardly counts as a Requiem, more a 'Consolation'

    Here is a nice version without the usual fat sound and wobbly vibrato

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVBMhP0UcdU&html5=1

    Norman, are you listening?

    in Other Topics

    Posted

    This is the movement that reminds us that he wrote incidental music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emoyA7iGFKg

    I saw Kyung Wha Chung playing the Brahms in Exeter with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra...

    The first half was the Rite of Spring so it was a marvellous programme

    Here is  the Mendelssohn concero...I have linked to this version partly because I love the fire of Vengerov, but also because the Gewandhaus orchestra seems so appropriate...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJTiOPJ6g28

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